A Neurophysiologist Shares 3 Sneaky Factors Messing With Your Sleep

If you want to secure a younger brain, you have to focus on sleep—plain and simple. Take it from neurophysiologist Louisa Nicola, founder of Neuro Athletics: "Sleep is the most underrated high-performance tool that we have," she says on the mindbodygreen podcast. A good snooze is not only crucial for immediate performance, she notes (think memory and focus) but also for lifelong brain health. 

But, sigh, enhancing your sleep is way easier said than done. Even if you commit to all the sleep-promoting tricks and gadgets you can find, you may still wake up feeling exhausted, groggy, or both. It's a frustrating situation to find yourself in, but according to Nicola, a few sneaky culprits may be at play. 

Yes, alcohol totally messes with your sleep. You're probably thinking: But I feel so sleepy after a few drinks! Well, ethanol—the active ingredient in alcohol—is technically a sedative. But as Louisa notes: "Sedating is very different to sleeping." And as that alcohol gets metabolized through the night, it disrupts essential deep sleep stages like REM sleep1. 

Like alcohol, melatonin supplements are also known for relaxing the body and helping your eyes feel heavy before bed. But in case you weren't aware: Melatonin is a hormone you naturally have in your body. It gets released from the pineal gland when the sun goes down to prepare your brain and body for rest. 

"We already secrete it naturally," Nicola says. So when you take melatonin, "your brain is getting an influx of this naturally secreting hormone, but it's a synthetic version," she adds. "It's probably thinking, What is going on?'"

Look, melatonin can be helpful as a short-term solution to reset your circadian rhythm. But when taken on a nightly basis, there is limited evidence2 that it will improve sleep quality. It may make it easier to fall asleep slightly quicker, but it won't necessarily make it easier to stay asleep or reach deep sleep stages. That's why experts—Nicola included—don't recommend taking it as a nightly sleep supplement.

"One of the reasons why we feel so jet lagged is because we're dehydrated," Nicola declares. Plus, not enough hydration can mess with your quality of rest in general; a 2019 study even found that adults who had a short sleep duration (six hours or less) also had suboptimal hydration levels3. 

But that doesn't mean you should chug a few cups before bed. Drinking too many liquids at night can result in multiple trips to the bathroom—which means more sleep interruptions throughout the night.